The death toll in yesterday's Iraqi suicide car bomb outrage has climbed to 125, making it the worst such atrocity since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
Some 130 people were wounded in the attack, which took place at Hilla, a provincial city some 100 kilometres south of Baghdad.
The target was a line of police recruits, queueing to have their eyes tested, part of the medical examination necessary before they could sign up. But many of those killed were at the market across the road, and were caught in the blast as they shopped.
The bomber appears to have gone about his task with a coolness that belied his intent. He smiled calmly at a police check as he drove towards the recruits and was waved on.
"I was standing in the queue when I saw this Mitsubishi coming slowly towards us," Ameer Hassan, one of the recruits, said. "Then it blew up in a huge fireball. When I opened my eyes again, I was in hospital."
Television footage of the resultant carnage showed a pile of bloodied bodies outside the building. Smoke rose from the wreckage of burnt-out market stalls as bystanders loaded mangled corpses on to rickety wooden carts, usually used to carry fruit and vegetables.
Others, their limbs ripped to shreds, were piled into the back of pick-up trucks. Nearby buildings were pockmarked by shrapnel. People wept, clutched their heads in despair and shouted "God is greatest" as rescuers led the injured away.
"The suicide bomber came from a nearby alleyway," said Zeyd Shamran. "There were two people in [the car] and when it stopped, one man got out, shook hands and kissed the other man."
Moments later the car exploded, he said.